Rolling Away the Reproach

In May 1862, Robert Smalls stood at the wheel of the CSS Planter in Charleston Harbor, his heart pounding as Confederate fortifications loomed in the darkness. An enslaved man pressed into service as a ship's pilot, Smalls had memorized every Confederate signal, every password. That night, he commandeered the vessel, sailed past the guns of Fort Sumter, and delivered himself, his family, and twelve other enslaved people to freedom behind Union lines.…